I am very strongly in favor of as wide and rapid a distribution as possible for endorsements. I think the only thing that counts is numbers. The media is going to say "1000 scientists signed" or "1500 signed". No one is going to check if it is 600 with PhDs versus 2000 without. They will mention the prominent ones, but that is a different story.

Conclusion -- Forget the screening, forget asking them about their last publication (most will ignore you.) Get those names!

Never again can anyone ever claim that "4500 scientists support the IPCC' etc etc.

I like Joseph's faith in the lack of rigour that the media will apply to their statements regarding numbers. They'll put 11 fact checkers onto Palin, and zero onto the IPCC.